Let’s start with the Bible’s account of what happened when the Israelites fashioned a Golden Calf for worship.

According to Exodus 32:1-29 [New International Version]:

[Having led the Israelites from bondage in Egypt, Moses ascended Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments from God. And while he was gone….]

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” 

Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.”

So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool….

So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry….

Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain….

And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it….

The Adoration of the Golden Calf (Nicholas Poussin)

Moses…stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me.” 

And all the Levites rallied to him.

Then he said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’”

The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.

Then Moses said, “You have been set apart to the Lord today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”

Fast forward three thousand years later:

From the day he announced his candidacy for President, Donald Trump has been the favorite son of evangelicals. According to a November 8, 2020 story on NPR: 

“A notable fact in 2016 was that exit polls showed about 80% of white evangelical Christians supported Trump in spite of his unfamiliarity with the Bible, his divorces, his vulgar rhetoric and his association with porn stars. Trump’s reputation in moral terms hasn’t changed all that much during his time in office, but there is little evidence of slippage among these faith voters.

“Surveys of early voters and exit polls this year showed between 76 and 81% of white evangelical and ‘born again’ voters supporting Trump, according to the National Election Pool and AP/Votecast.”

So an intriguing question inevitably erupts: How will evangelicals react to the unveiling of a Golden Trump statue at the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)? 

The Adoration of Donald Trump

The unveiling happened on February 25, the first day of the three-day conference in Orlando, Florida. According to CNN: 

“The more than 6-foot-tall statue turned heads as it was wheeled into the Hyatt Regency Thursday evening while CPAC attendees picked up their registration and milled about the hotel. The statue was on its way to the conference’s exhibit hall, where it found a home in a booth for a conservative nonprofit called Look Ahead America.”

Onlookers described the statue as “awesome” and “so cool.”

But the statue was heavily ridiculed online, with many making biblical references to idolizing false gods and the golden calf Moses destroys in the Old Testament.

Tommy Zegan, the California-based artist who created the Trump statue, said that every aspect of it is symbolic.

“The coat and tie is the fact that he’s a professional, he’s a businessman,” Zegan said. “The red tie symbolizes he’s a Republican. The red white and blue is that he’s a patriot. The fact that he’s wearing thongs and shorts is that he’s at the age where he should be retired. He should be at the beach right now.”

Asked if Trump should retire or run for President again in 2024, Zegan replied: “I would be, yes, ecstatic. If he wants it to happen, it will happen.”

Wrote CNN reporter Michael Warren: “The statue is perhaps the most extreme celebration at CPAC of the former president.” 

Trump was scheduled to speak on February 28, the last day of the conference. By contrast, Mike Pence, the former vice president, reportedly turned down an invitation to speak at CPAC, while Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wasn’t invited at all.